


Duality

by demiclar



Series: Destcember 2020 [22]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Destcember 2020 (Destiny), Destcember Day 22, Destcember Prompt 16, M/M, Meditation, Set during Beyond Light, Torak uses the Darkness, fancy ice stuff, meditation on the Darkness, woah spooky but also not at all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:34:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28257000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demiclar/pseuds/demiclar
Summary: Edon watches Torak wield the Darkness, and contemplates the duality of Light and Dark.
Relationships: Male Guardian/Male Guardian (Destiny)
Series: Destcember 2020 [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037118
Kudos: 1
Collections: Fireteam Aadya





	Duality

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is extremely inspired by a deleted scene from one of Sarah J Maas's books.

Edon wasn’t sure what to think about the Darkness. He wasn’t sure how he felt about Torak wielding it, either. Out of all their team, their most inexperienced member had somehow ended up being their best choice to embrace the Dark powers, and while Edon knew it was right, he wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

The fact that they’d decided on Torak wasn’t so difficult to grasp. Tessa had been working with Drifter and the Darkness for a while now, but her connection to the Light had proved difficult in the past, so embracing a new power wasn’t something she felt comfortable with. Edon himself felt too tied to the light, and would have been destabilized by the presence of the Darkness. It was the same with Damian, neither of them could get over what the Darkness had done to them in the past, not enough to embrace it. Since a round of Hive attacks that had brought her Light to an all-time low point, Estella couldn’t even contemplate taking the Darkness on, and while her wife, Praxedes, hadn’t been wounded in the same ways, she shared the sentiment. Ada and Akshay had simply abstained, which left them with Torak, strong, sturdy, capable Torak. Even if the others _had_ been able to embrace the Darkness, Torak still felt like the right choice.

Over the past few years, his growth had been astronomical. When Edon had met him, he’d been a young, powerful but inexperienced Guardian, capable of greatness but not mentally sound enough for the enemies he was facing. Since then, he’d learned more about himself, learned how to handle the Darkness and their attacks. He’d grown stronger and more confident, but had remained down to earth and calm. Now, Edon was pretty sure he was the most stable member of their group. But the Darkness was still…troubling.

Tessa had tried to explain it to him as duality, proficiency in wielding two powers. Edon could understand where she was coming from, but he’d always seen duality as something different, like mastering two subclasses of Light. Arc and void, or void and solar. In that way, he’d been striving for duality all his life, but this was different. He was hesitant to call it wrong, because it wasn’t wrong, in fact it felt _right_ , but it was different.

He let his eyes return to the scene in front of him. While he most of the rest of the team—currently Tessa, Estella, and Praxedes—stood huddled around the fire with Drifter and Eris at their little camp in Europa, they looked on towards Torak and Damian, seated cross legged across from one another a good twenty feet or so away from them. Their eyes were closed, both of them having shed their helmets and the bulk of their armor, replacing them with breathers and all they needed to keep warm while they meditated, one on Light, one on Darkness.

“Focus on control.” Damian instructed, “Start with wielding the power in small amounts.”

Edon watched as a thin ring of fire formed in the air around Damian. Likely due to Torak reaching out with the Darkness to feel the other man’s presence and his movements, Edon watched Damian shudder before ice began to form around Torak. His ring was sharp and jagged, the ice forming an uneven circle around him, growing perhaps half a foot up into the air before Torak had it stop. Some of the points continued to grow higher than the others. Edon watched Torak’s face shift with the strain.

“Breathe.” Damian instructed, his eyes open now, though his ring of fire still remained. “Darkness is just another weapon. You must give into it, but you must also maintain control.”

Edon could hear the hiss from Torak’s breather as he followed Damian’s instructions. Only half his mind was present as he rounded the little fire to move closer to the two. However, he stopped just at the edge of its warmth as Damian’s eyes cut to his in warning. The team had had to remind him more than once that this new power was dangerous, especially to him. The fact that the Darkness could slip out of Torak’s control, that it could put Edon at risk due to their feelings for one another…it was more than worrying, but it was hard for Edon to stay away. Edon was pretty sure that if the Stranger had her way, Torak would be doing this entire thing alone. He wondered if it would have been better that way.

He watched Torak’s head drop a little, but the ice stopped growing, stilling and settling out. Edon had to admit, watching it was fascinating. It was as if they were icicles melting upwards, growing out of the ground around Torak at his very command.

“Good.” Damian told him, his eyes back on the Titan before him. “Now melt them. Make them go away.”

Just as he spoke, Damian’s ring of fire expanded to a wall of fire, climbing out of the ground and reaching roughly the same height as Torak’s ring of ice. Once he’d spoken, though, he began to shrink the wall bit by bit, letting the flames grow smaller and smaller.

Torak drew another deep breath through his breather, seeming to let the oxygen settle into his bones before his brows furrowed in concentration once more. Ever so slowly, the ice began to shrink. Edon wouldn’t call it melting, for no water ran from the spikes, but they began to shift, as if they were slowly breaking down, rocks weathering under wind and water. One of the larger icicles cracked and Torak gasped, his shoulders tensing as he leaned forward more, struggling to regain control.

“Slowly.” Damian reminded him. “Nothing too dramatic. Let the ice slowly fade.”

Like Light, Edon suspected that should Torak release his hold on the power, whatever he’d created out of it would remain for a time afterwards, the same way the sunspots burned from his hammers even after he’d directed his attention and Light elsewhere. When he smoldered his flames, his attention had to remain on the fires until they were out. The same thing must have been true for Torak’s ice.

Torak’s breathing was labored, but it began to even out from its near frantic previous state. As it evened, the progress of his ice did as well, the crystals slowing together now. Damian matched his pace with his flames, and together, their powers sunk into the snow until nothing remained but two circles, one of water rapidly freezing to ice, and another of disturbed snow, revealing natural ice below.

“Nice work.” Damian told Torak, and the Titan opened his eyes, giving Damian a tired, uneasy smile as he let out his breath. He stretched his arms a little, twisting his shoulders to the left and right to stretch his back as well.

“Alright.” Torak said once they were done. “What’s next?”

Damian smiled, and a crown of fire appeared on his head.

Edon watched Torak’s smile falter, but he studied the crown intently, and Edon watched Damian tense just slightly, his chin dipping just as Edon felt the Darkness shift from Torak to run over Damian, assessing his crown of Light. Then, he sat up straight, lifted his chin, and closed his eyes.

The crown began to form very slowly, the first point appeared at the front of his head, then two on either side, points following in succession in a circle towards the back of his head, each growing steadily with one another to form the front larger than the back. He let it grow very slowly, the ice climbing perhaps a centimeter per second—if even—and he let it only grow for a few inches before he halted it and let the ice rest. When he opened his eyes again, Damian was grinning at him.

“No embellishments?” He teased, his own crown bearing jewels of different colored flames. They all knew Torak couldn’t be expected to create the same. Torak only shrugged.

“I’m a minimalist.” He explained simply, and Damian grinned wider.

“Another test in control.” Damian told Torak as he let his crown face away. “See how long you can keep it up. Don’t let it melt. Don’t let it grow.”

He stood within his little circle of ice, dusting the snow off his robes and stretching out a little.

“And you can come back to join everyone else if you think you can handle the stimulation.” He added as he stepped out of his little circle, towards Edon and the rest of the team.

Torak nodded, just a little dip of his chin, and Edon watched him rise carefully, his back straight, looking perfectly at home with his crown of ice. He brushed off his own clothes before following Damian, moving to join Edon at the edge of the fire’s warmth.

“So,” he said as he approached, spreading his hands. “How do I look?”

Edon let his eyes drift over him, take in his tight mohawk braid, the shaved sides of his head, the heavy poncho he’d donned to stave off the cold, his deep red Titan mark, and his sword, Crown-Splitter resting, at his hip.

“Like some badass ice prince.” He answered, and Torak smiled.

“Not a king?” He rested a hand on the hilt of his sword. Edon shrugged.

“No. Too much responsibility.” He told him. “If you were I king, I couldn’t steal you away for impromptu lunch dates.”

Torak grinned, but his eyes peered up, trying to look at the crown atop his head.

“Well, it looks like I have plenty of responsibility already. I suppose I could deal with not taking on anything more.” His tone wasn’t pessimistic, but Edon could feel the slight tension in it. He leaned in to press a kiss to Torak’s jaw.

“Don’t worry.” He told him; his voice soft, gentle. “We’ll get through it.”

Torak returned the kiss, this time to Edon’s lips.

“I hope you’re right.” He murmured, and Edon eyed the crown atop Torak’s head, unchanged, solid, ever steady.

“I know I’m right.”


End file.
